New day, new chapter.
As always, thanks for the faves and reviews. No real questions to address that aren't going to be answered by the story. Bit of an update, the sequel is finished and being edited, as are some short stories to fill in the gaps between the two main stories.
Enjoy.
Chapter 10
The next morning she came down wearing one of Ron's oversized shirts over a pair of black panties, half asleep and brushing her hair out of her face, to find Zita in the kitchen. The young woman's backpack was on the table, clothes and school books spilling out everywhere. The girl herself, still wearing her pjs, was at the sink, filling up Shego's green water bowl, along with a vividly bright pink one.
"Morning?" Shego asked, confused. "What are you doing?"
Zita turned around with a grin. "Getting breakfast ready," She said with a smile. "I figured given that I'm spending all weekend with another pet, I would take full advantage of it to just cut loose and give into Canela as much as I could."
Shego watched with some trepidation as the young woman set the bowls out of sight on the floor. Walking around the table, she found that next to her unused black food bowl, was another obnoxiously pink one. Zita retrieved a large plastic bag of granola from her back pack and started pouring equal portions into the two bowls.
"Zita," Shego said slowly, "I'm not sure about this."
"Why not?" the girl asked, coming over and guiding Shego over to the dishes. "Don't tell me you're gonna make me eat breakfast all by myself, after I worked so hard to make it."
Shego gave her friend a flat look. "Worked hard?" She prompted. "You literally just poured it in there. And it's not even homemade, that's the stuff you can buy in bulk at Smarty Mart, I recognize it."
Zita gave a dramatic sigh, "Alright, you caught me," she said, "But it's yummy and easy to eat out of a bowl." She pouted at the older woman. "Come on, please? I don't get to play as much as I want, and I usually don't get to just play because it usually ends in me and Felix going at it like rabbits."
The girl's enthusiasm was infectious, Shego had to admit, and pet play was purely a fun and sexy game for the girl, not her twenty four reality. Though, looking at Zita, she couldn't help but think the girl would be happy if it was.
Flushing with embarrassment, Shego relented. "Okay," she said, "fine, I'll do it."
"Hooray!" Zita shouted, hugging the other woman tightly before pulling back. "I promise, we're going to have so much fun."
Shego watched as the other girl quickly got on all fours and started eagerly comping away at the food in her bowl. With a sigh, she got down herself and slowly started trying to eat herself.
It was different from drinking, she quickly found, but a lot easier. She could get the granola to stick to her tongue for one thing, and if that failed she could literally scoop it up with her mouth. Zita had been right, the granola actually was pretty tasty too, and it made the water feel somehow even more refreshing. It was odd, but she wasn't going to complain.
Zita finished well before she did and gave a contented meow before crawling off. Shego tried to make herself relax as she slowly worked her way through the food, but was relieved to find she didn't feel as humiliated as she normally did when merely thinking about doing what she was currently doing.
On a whim, she followed the other girl's example and settled for crawling into the living room. The other girl suddenly appeared on the arm of the sofa as Shego passed by. "So," Zita said cheerfully, "What do you normally do during the day when Ron's gone?"
That prompted Shego to guide Zita through her usual morning routine. First a hour of hard yoga to warm up. Then two hours of practicing what katas she could, which ended up with her teaching Zita some very basic karate and muay tai hits and blocks. Followed by running on the tread mill.
"Please," the broken Hispanic girl begged, collapsing on the floor, "No more, no more, I give up!"
"Baby," Shego teased, taking a long drink of water from the sports bottle she'd filled up before the run. "I went easy on you."
"Easy?" Easy!" Zita panted. "You made me run almost ten miles!"
"No I didn't, you baby," Shego said with a laugh. "You only ran for an hour, and you were nowhere near doing a mile every ten minutes. You did, like, four at most."
"Oh god, I can feel my legs!" Zita groaned. "I can feel it in part of my legs I didn't even know I had in my legs! How do you do this every day?!"
"Actually, I can generally do a mile in seven and a half minutes if I'm just pacing myself, five if I'm pushing." Shego said.
"Hooow?" Zita begged, looking incredulous.
"Well, before I was legally an animal, I was technically super human." Shego said with a shrug. "Not just because of the plasma, but I've got enhanced durability, strength, speed, etc." She took another drink. "I can't confirm or deny, but basically even with minimal work, I can keep up with most special forces, and if I'm able to train seriously I can surpass them."
"You're kidding," Zita said, looking up at her in amazement.
"No," Shego said with a sigh. "I know for sure, I've had to fight off teams from different branches in the past."
"That's pretty awesome," Zita said softly, before collapsing again with a whimper, clutching her legs. "Why did I let you talk me into this?"
"You didn't," Shego said, leaning against the arm support of the treadmill with an evil grin. "You insisted on doing it, and I went along because you made me eat out of a pet dish."
"I hate you," Zita groaned, "I hate you so much right now."
"Yeah yeah kiddo," Shego relented, going over and picking up the other girl. "Let's get you soaking in a tub for a bit and it will stop hurting so much."
"You really should get Ron to train with you," Zita said as she was carried to the bathroom. "I bet it would really help him out in the field, not to mention at least let you practice by teaching him. It's something you both have in common, like Felix and I do with video games."
Shego sighed, easing the girl down. "You may have a point," she said, pouring salts into the bath and turning the water on. "I'll talk to him about it when he gets back, see if he's interested."
Zita slipped past her and into the tub, clothes abandoned on the floor, with a long drawn out sigh. "Oh, that feels so nice, you were right Sheila." The girl said. "It's a shame the tub isn't big enough for you to join in as well."
Shego laughed, "thankfully, I don't need it that often. I've just been working to try and maintain myself as best I can, not push myself to get better." She sat down on the toilet and grabbed a file to start working on her nails. "Not that I don't want to, give the situation, its just the complete lack of equipment. I tried pushing the treadmill when I first started and nearly broke it twice. Damn thing can barely handle an eight minute mile and even that's questionable after an hour, anything faster and I'm pretty sure it will explode."
"That does suck, I guess," Zita said, sounding completely unconvinced of the actual suckage. Shego laughed. "So what did you do before?"
"Well, back when I worked for Draken, usually the lairs either had actual gyms of one sort or another, or were under construction enough that they could be used like one." Shego said. "I also would change up my work out, so some days were weightlifting, others were aerobics or calisthenics, and while no one was up to my speed or strength, there were generally one or two henchmen with some martial arts experience to at least spar with, even if it was usually all of them against me at the same time." The file rasped away repeatedly. "Hell, sometimes I'd make all the henchmen come at me, called 'Princess training' in a desperate attempt to actually make them useful against her."
"I'm guessing it didn't work out?" Zita asked.
"Hell no," Shego laughed, "It was absolutely useless. Half of them came away so terrified they wouldn't go near her, and it turned out Stoppable was the far more dangerous threat, because none of the tricks they learned worked on him. He'd just trip over his own pants onto the self destruct button half the time."
Zita giggled, "Yeah, that does sound like Ron."
"Sounds like you dated him" Shego said with a laugh.
The Hispanic girl wriggled in the tub and blushed. "We did for a while." She said, at Shego's look she continued, "It didn't go on for very long or get very far. We had some common interests and all, but we were way too different in most ways. He was how I met Felix though, several months after things ended."
Zita looked up at Shego. "I am really happy he has you though," She said softly, "He's a wonderful guy, and he absolutely deserves someone to care for him outside of Kim. Don't get me wrong, she's a good person, but..."
"Good people do good things," Shego said, "And that's the problem."
Zita gave her a confused look. "I guess?" she said uncertainly.
Shego gave a laugh, remembering how Ron had reacted when she'd said that to him. "Look, I'll admit my perspective is biased and probably a bit twisted according to most people," She said.
Zita grinned, "Just a bit?" she teased, "Miss 'I'm going to take over the world?'" The Hispanic girl threw her head back and did the cheesiest evil laugh she could till Shego reached down and splashed her with the bath water, which led to a fit of mutual giggles.
"Bitch," Shego said without malice. "But yeah, being 'evil' gives one a different perspective, as does hanging out with other people labeled the same. You'd be amazed at how many different people and points of view are out there."
"Oh?" Zita asked.
"Oh yeah," Shego said with a laugh, "Evil has generally been on of the best 'equal opportunity employers,' out there. Class, creed, religion, sex, age, all the usual things that have been discriminated against, 'evil' and 'crime' have almost always thrown up their doors and let anyone in to work. A black man who would be denied job after job under Jim Crow would be able to be anything from a rum runner to crime boss. A woman in a time when she'd barely be allowed to be a teacher or nurse could have the chance to build a criminal empire or be a master thief. I had a great, great, great aunt who helped try to take over the world at one point. I've met everyone from Rhodesian refugees to Nazi soldiers to holy warriors, and they all believed completely different things and had different lives."
"Really?" Zita leaned against the side of the tub, listening with rapt attention. "A holy warrior? Like Anderson?"
Shego gave her a confused look, "Who's Anderson?"
Zita giggled. "He's from an anime called Hellsing. A vampire hunting priest who works for the Vatican." The girl replied. "I'll show it to you later."
"Oh," Shego shrugged. "I don't know anything about that. No, the ones I met claimed they were Heathens who worshiped the Norse Gods." She leaned back, trying to remember. "I only met them briefly, and I forget the guy's name, but the woman's name was Astrid. She had this warhammer, which honestly I thought was a walking cane with a really fancy handle on it. Looking at her, you'd think she was just an really tall woman in really good shape, but nothing special about her."
"Sounds like a story," Zita grinned. "Tell me, tell me."
Shego laughed, "Alright, but I wouldn't say it was terribly interesting." She gathered her thoughts. "It was a couple years ago, during a vacation after Princess had thwarted one of Dr. D's latest plots, back when I thought she was just some lucky upstart teen hero. Anyways, I'd decided to hit up Paris, catch the sights and the food. I met them in a little cafe off some back alley that was a semi-frequent spot for folks on the other side to either have a relaxing meal out of the public eye, or occasionally find the odd job. He was the first one to catch my eye, because any six foot five blonde guy with rippling muscles carrying a seven foot long spear is of course going to get anyone's attention."
"Of course," Zita said, with a grin.
"Pervert," Shego said, acting scandalized before laughing with the other girl. "Anyways, they were discussing some museum and it sounded like they were pulling off a heist. So I followed them when they left. Spent the entire day doing it too, which was a lot less interesting than I thought it would be."
"Anyways, turned out one of the museums was hosting an exhibition of Viking artifacts that had just been discovered from some invasion of Paris. So that night I'm following them and they walk right into the place. Right through the front door, which apparently had been left unlocked." Shego shuddered. "I figured they just had an inside person let them. But the place was literally covered in sky lights, so I settled for watching them through that. Absolutely no sense going inside and potentially getting caught and blamed for whatever was going to happen."
"So I'm on the roof, tracking them through the sky lights when we finally get to the exhibit. Turns out they weren't the only ones interested in the artifacts. Someone had gotten their first. I don't know what they were planning on stealing, but they had decided to have fun with one of the guards." Another shudder ran through her.
"That doesn't sound good," Zita said softly.
"You ever heard of a blood eagle kid?" Shego asked softly. When the girl shook her head, the raven-haired woman swallowed. "I had, but I'd only ever scene drawings of what it might have been like. It's an old Norse punishment. The skin is pealed from the back, the ribs are broken open and spread wide, then the lungs are pulled out and rested on the shoulders."
Zita looked horrified.
"Whoever...whatever...got there first was doing that to the guard, but it stopped when the pair got in there. I don't know what was said, and I never got a good look at what was doing it, except it was big and it either had really long fingers or really big claws. And the fight, it was something else." She lost herself, remembering. "The guy did most of the fighting to start with, and even from my awkward view point his moves were something to see. His moves were familiar if you've ever watched a master of the Japanese spear, but different. You could tell he was using a more European martial art, but one with a far deeper understanding than anyone I've seen trying to recreate them. It made me think of those stories of legendary heroes like Siegfried or Beowulf, and if they fought anything like that man I understand why people called them heroes and their foes monsters. No blow was left unanswered, no attack without riposte."
"Eventually I think one of them broke something cause the alarm went off and police started speeding in. I managed to hide where I could still watch some of the fight. SWAT busted in, being all tactical, but I could tell that if they got anywhere near, they wouldn't stand a chance against the first intruder, because spear-guy was holding his own, but he wasn't making any progress. I had no idea why the woman wasn't helping, but figured maybe she just couldn't fight."
"I was wrong." Shego said, unable to keep the admiration from her voice. "She could fight and she did. I've fought swat teams and special forces myself, and she took down the first team with a brutality and efficiency I've rarely seen. I won't lie, I'm proud of what I can do and that means I tend to show off a bit. Not her, every move was perfect efficient, not a single ounce of wasted movement. The last guy was already going down by the time the second had hit the floor, and she did it all without killing them. The second team didn't do any better."
"Damn," Zita said, listening with rapt attention.
"So then the woman turns around and comes back in room with all the artifacts while the guy is still fighting, and starts pulling some stuff out of a bag. I'm not entirely sure what it was she did, but she went up to one of the artifacts and started doing what I can only describe as a exorcism, though nothing like what you see in the movies. Anyways, the thing the guy was fighting goes mad, and tries to attack her, but he held it off until she was done, at which point he took its head off with his spear."
"When they left, I followed them, because they didn't take anything from the museum and against my better judgment I wanted to know what the hell had just happened and maybe test myself against one of them." Shego said, then explained at Zita's questioning stare. "I'm a martial artist, and while it's not as big a thing anymore, used to be martial artists would go around testing themselves against the strongest people they dared to challenge to see how good they were. She'd just taken out full swat team in less than a minute. It was basically catnip."
"I caught up with them several blocks away and they were waiting for me." Shego said, "Which was honestly a little nerve wracking because I was pretty sure they couldn't have known I was following me. Long story short, I confronted them, after a bit of arguing I ended up fighting her, barely making it a draw, and we ended up in a cafe."
"So what was it?" Zita asked, "The person they fought?"
"Well, I'm not sure I believe everything they said," Shego said, "But they claimed it was a Nothing."
"Nothing," Zita said skeptically. "It was clearly something."
"Not nothing," Shego said with a chuckle, "A Nothing. Supposedly it was created by a really old and powerful curse involving a horse's head, basically it's cast on the worst of the worst, people who haven't just broken their oaths, but broken them so horrifically nothing of them can be allowed to remain in society."
"Oh, like Walter Frey and the red wedding!" Zita said.
"No idea what that is," Shego said.
"Its from a fantasy series called Ice and Fire," Zita explained. "Basically this guy invited several families involved in a marriage alliance to his castle, and then despite having sworn the most sacred oaths of hospitality, slaughtered one entire family and their bondmen, and then took some of the other hostage."
Shego nodded, "Yeah, sounds about right from what I remember. That kind of thing." She said. "Anyways, that's what they claimed it was. I don't know if I believe them...don't know if I want to. Mutants and mad science is one thing. Magic and monsters is something else."
"Yeah," Zita said, resting her chin on her arms. "It's one thing to see and hear about the stuff Ron and Kim fight, I don't know how I'd feel living in a world of curses, monsters, and black magic, like in the fairy tails."
They sat in silence for a while, before Zita pulled herself gingerly out of the tub's cool water.
Soaking was followed by massages, which Zita loved receiving and Shego spent some time teaching Zita how to do properly. That was followed by several hours of beauty treatments, which Shego hadn't realized how much she missed.
"So why do you always wear green and black?" Zita asked while painting Shego's toes in said colors.
"They're just my favorites," Shego said with a shrug, sipping one of the strawberry smoothies they'd made, "In the villain business it's important to have a signature look so people can always recognize you, and because it makes it some what easier to go unnoticed when you're not wearing it. Plus, my plasma is green and black, so it made sense to color coordinate between my plasma, my skin and hair, etc."
"Guess that makes sense," Zita said, biting her lip as she focused on the task at hand.
"Why pink?" Shego teased.
Zita blushed. "I don't know," she said, "I'm not exactly famous for being feminine, being more interested in video games and fantasy than fashion. So I guess I went with it to try and be as feminine as possible as part of being Canela."
"Makes sense," Shego said.
The beauty session ended up in both of them falling asleep as the work out caught up with Zita and the resulting boredom caught up with Shego. She woke up with Zita cuddled against her hours later. The villainess wondered how her life had come to be in a place where a teen girl felt safe in her arms.
Life was certainly strange.
Dinner consisted of canned beef stew, which Zita absolutely insisted they eat out of their bowls, and Shego relented after half an hour of pleading and bargaining. Much to her shock, Zita insisted on licking her clean rather than letting her wash up. That had been weird. Still, Zita had looked so happy Shego couldn't feel that bad about it.
It had also led to playful wrestling, which had turned into her actually giving Zita some very basic lessons in wrestling and ju-jitsu. Which ended after one to many times of them banging into chair and table legs.
"Owwwww," Zita said, rubbing her shin while Shego silently rubbed her temple where it had hit a chair. "I really appreciate you showing me all this, Sheila, but if we keep doing this we really need to find a better place for it."
"Yeah," Shego said, "same for if Master and I start practicing."
"You could always use the back yard," Zita said.
"It's out in the open," Shego said, "Anyone watching could see us doing it. I'm pretty sure I'm under surveillance. I check the house every day, as does Wade apparently, but anything outside is fair game for satellites, cameras, or agents."
Zita looked shock, then slowly terrified. "Wait, is that why you always have the blinds down?" She asked. When Shego nodded, she looked sick. "That's terrible. And illegal, right?"
Shego sighed, remembering when she was so innocent. "The legality doesn't matter," She said. "It's different everywhere, but I've noticed that Americans tend to walk around thinking their perfectly safe because of their civil rights, but the truth is those in power don't give a shit about that sort of thing. Oh, sure, your local cops might respect some of the stuff because if they didn't their court cases would probably get thrown out. But the higher you go? No way. They're not interested in convicting you of crimes, they're interested in tracking threats. They can always find something to charge you with later, assuming you don't happen to get mugged or die in a home invasion."
Zita looked absolutely terrified.
"And that's just the agencies in your own country. GJ, Interpol, Mossad, agencies outside this country aren't bound by this nations laws. In theory if you could prove the FBI was violating the Constitution, you could punish some of those involved. But if MI:5 does it? Oh, there would be some saber rattling on the news, and some winks and nods and handshakes in the back rooms."
"That's...terrible," Zita said, sounding small. Shego felt an irrational flash of anger. Not at the girl, but at the entire world.
"Let me tell you a secret, Zita," She said, her voice a soft growl. "I'm a super villain, a lot of people think I'm a monster, including Kim. But the only difference between people like Draken, me, any of the villains Kim fights, and any and every government on this planet, is they managed to get themselves declared legitimate. And the only thing that protects people like you is the fact that those governments feel its less trouble to let you think you're free and respected than it is to throw you in a camp or a cage, and that can change on a whim."
She glanced over and saw the girl looking pale and shaking. She supposed had she said that to your average person under normal circumstances, they could brush it off. But Zita knew her, knew first hand what had been done to Shego. It was all too real, and Zita was just an innocent high school kid, barely eighteen. So Shego took pity on her and pulled the young girl into a hug.
She wouldn't admit it, but she wanted the comfort too. The world was just too terrifying when you started to think about it too much. It's why she'd tried to avoid doing it before, but that was impossible when every day was rubbing her face in it. Zita's arms wrapped tight around her, squeezing her close.
"I didn't realize it was so hard," Zita said softly. "Like, I know what's been done to you, but I got so caught up on how romantic it would be, living life as a pet, constantly having owner's attention, never having to worry about school or all that other stuff." She gave a small sob, "But this life isn't romantic for you, is it? This house is a prison, and you can't even look at the sun, or make love to your owner, or train, or do anything, without fearing someone is watching, waiting for you to screw up, so they can take you to an even worse cage."
She nodded. "Yes," the word came out ragged and broken.
Zita's tears soak into her shirt as the girl broke down. For once, Shego didn't feel like crying, too empty at the moment for more tears. 'He is Conan, Cimmerian. He does not cry, so I cry for him.' the line fluttered through her head. She rubbed the girl's back, letting the young woman cry for her.
Eventually, Zita pulled back, wiping her eyes and nose. "I'm sorry," she said softly. "I didn't mean to..."
Shego felt something in that moment she hadn't felt since she'd left her little twin brothers behind, an almost motherly affection for the girl. She leaned in and kissed the girls hair. Pulling back, she did her best barbarian voice, "I am Cimmerian, I do not cry." she said, tapping the girl's chest, "You cry for me."
Zita gave her a watery smile, then hugged her with crushing force, burying her face in Shego's neck. "Okay," the girl sobbed, "I'll cry for you, so you don't have too."
Shego made sure the girl never saw the tears that leaked out from those words.
Sunday went much the same, though thankfully with less crying as far as Shego was concerned. Zita absolutely refused to do any running, which lead to Shego mocking her as she ran fifteen miles in an hour and a half just to show off.
Of course then Shego ended up in the bath, soaking her legs because she hadn't done that in almost two months and her normal run since she'd started working out at Ron's consisted of doing eight miles in an hour.
Zita was willing to let them eat like normal after the conversation yesterday, but after spending breakfast watching the girl trying to be subtle with her longing glances at the vividly pink bowls, Shego relented for lunch (more granola) and dinner (beef stew, again), stoically enduring Canela's licking her clean. The Hispanic girl had teased her about looking like an old dog enduring the attentions of a puppy.
Shego took offense to the 'old' comment, which started an hour long game of tag as she chased down the young woman in order to teach her a lesson. Shego won, obviously, which resulted in more grappling training.
It was ten that evening when Felix showed up. The pair of them were sprawled out on the sofa, theoretically watching a movie when he rolled into the living room.
"Amante!" Zita cheered, launching herself into his lap and nuzzling into him.
"Hello, Canela," Felix said, kissing her before turning to the raven haired woman. "Hey Sheila, Ron back yet?"
Shego gave a frustrated growl. "No," she said, "He's supposed to get back in at eleven now. They changed the flight back, again. Apparently GJ is giving them a ride."
"Yuck," Felix said, using one of the arms on his chair seize the remote and start flipping channels.
"Hey! I was watching that!" Shego complained.
"Sheila, I saw your face, you hated it." Felix said with a laugh, stroking Zita's back as the younger girl curled up in his lap purring.
'He really does look like a Bond villain,' Shego realized watching them. 'Probably be a pretty successful one too with his mechanical talents.'
She was seriously starting to consider trying to corrupt the pair if she ever got her humanity back. Same with Ron. Even if she was a free woman...she wasn't sure if she wanted to imagine a life without him. Hell, part of her, the part she fought off hard, had started showing her visions of her getting her humanity back, only to turn her back on villainy and be his wife. A pretty pale green wedding dress, little pale green children. She fought the images off, along with the aching pain they came with.
"Wrestling, really Amante?" Zita complained as Felix settle on a channel. He lightly popped her ass.
"Hush, kitten," in a voice that made the girl blush and wriggle in his lap. Shego went back to watching as someone named Steel Toe bounced around the ring, slamming into some other guy over and over.
Ron finally made it home a little after midnight, looking absolutely dead on his feet. Shego waited till the door was shut before she rushed over to him, guiding him to the sofa.
"Hey guys," Ron said, his voice utterly drained, "Sorry I'm so late."
"It's all good man," Felix said, smiling.
Shego was checking him all over, looking for injuries, and Ron gently took her hands in his to make her stop. "I'm fine, Shego," He said gently, "Dementor showed up this morning to try and take the Neuro-Control chips and I only had to deal with a couple henchmen while Kim handled things."
"Did anything go wrong?" Zita asked, sitting up.
"Well, I'm afraid there was a lab accident," Ron said with a groan, "And all the new prototype chips were destroyed when one of the henchmen accidentally knocked some really strong acid on them. Then the computer with all the data about them exploded from some sort of electrical short. I have no idea how it happened, but I nearly lost my eyebrows in the explosion."
Shego looked down, the tiniest of smiles gracing her lips. She nuzzled his ear, planting gentle kisses on it. "Thank you, Master," she whispered, and he squeezed her hands tightly.
Pulling back she put on a stern look. "Stupid Master, you should be more careful!" she said hotly, before sniffing and refusing to look at him.
"Oh, come on Sheila!" Ron said, "It was an accident! How was I supposed to know it would blow up?"
"Not an excuse," she said hotly.
Zita and Felix were trying to contain their laughter as Ron begged for forgiveness while Shego kept refusing to look at or forgive him. Finally, after ten minutes she relented and allowed him to stroke her hair while she rested her head in his lap.
"Would you guys like to crash here?" Ron asked their friends, "We can just head to school together in the morning."
Zita was asleep already in Felix's lap, so the other young man nodded. "Yeah, probably for the best." he said, "Given we have to be at school in five hours."
"I'll go get you some blankets and pillows," Shego said, getting off of Ron. She returned a few minutes later to find Felix and Zita laying on the sofa, so she gave him the pillows and draped the blanket over them. They bid their friends good night and went up to Ron's room.
"You sure you're not hurt?" Shego asked softly as Ron stripped. He smiled at her as she knelt on the bed, wearing just some panties and one of his jerseys, before leaning in and kissing her deeply.
"Positive." He promised, his exhaustion evident. "Now, am I going to get to sleep with you in my arms or are you planning on keeping me from going to bed at all?"
She blushed, but crawled down to the foot of the bed. "I'd love to sleep in your arms, Master," she said softly, not looking at him. "But...if I did that I wouldn't be able to control myself."
He made her look at him, that emotion she refused to acknowledge in his eyes. "Maybe I want my Shego to lose control," he said huskily, and the heat coiled tighter in her core.
"Master," she whimpered. She needed him. Wanted him. But Wade hadn't gotten back to them yet. It was too dangerous. She couldn't risk him.
He kissed her deeply, searing the soul from her body, before placing a softer, gentler kiss on her hair. "I know," he said, and she heard the same ache in his voice. "Get some sleep, my lovely Shego."
She nodded, fighting back the tears before curling up in a ball. She felt him climb in, and she wriggled to press her back against his feet. Anything to touch any part of him. He turned the light off and they lay there, waiting for sleep, and release, to come.